Far Horizons:: All New Tales from the Greatest Worlds of Science Fiction

A decent collection of stories from previously written about universes. How much you ike them will be somewhat related to how you like the originals, if you have come across them before. The story average is 3.41. Far Horizons : Old Music and the Slave Women [Ekumen] - Ursula K. Le Guin Far Horizons : A Separate War [Forever War] - Joe Haldeman Far Horizons : Investment Counselor [Ender Wiggin] - Orson Scott Card Far Horizons : Temptation [Uplift] - David Brin Far Horizons : Getting to Know the Dragon [Roma Eterna] - Robert Silverberg Far Horizons : Orphans of the Helix [Hyperion Cantos] - Dan Simmons Far Horizons : Sleeping Dogs [Sleepless] - Nancy Kress Far Horizons : The Boy Who Would Live Forever [Heechee (Robinette Broadhead)] - Frederik Pohl Far Horizons : A Hunger for the Infinite [Galactic Center] - Gregory Benford Far Horizons : The Ship That Returned [Helva] - Anne McCaffrey Far Horizons : The Way of All Ghosts: A Myth from Thistledown [Way] - Greg Bear Race war communications. 3 out of 5 War waiting, bi the way. 4 out of 5 AI accountants are cool. 4 out of 5 Dolphin escape and magic time diaspora subservience scheme rejection. 3.5 out of 5 Imperial travel brutality. 3 out of 5 Hyperion kid and Shrike buddy pay a visit for some teleporting fun. 3.5 out of 5 Dog dreaming denial dangerous. 4 out of 5 Gateway ship, black hole timeslip. 3.5 out of 5 Collecting horror. 3 out of 5 Prosthetic palsy. 3 out of 5 Had enough. 3 out of 5

A collection of the biggest names in contemparory science fiction return to their most famous creations for another fling. Rob Silverberg, himself a big name science fiction writer, follows up Legends, a collection of new stories in classic fantasy worlds with this impressive editorial effort in his own field. A must-read if only because of the scope and ambition of the project, the stories themselves are mostly of a higher than average standard, although none of them break much new ground in their respective worlds, many of them serving as postscripts, parallel visions, or the tying up of loose ends. Some of them come perilously close to what the industry calls "infodump", elaborating on the peripheral world-building information inherent but not explicit in the original works, but generally stay on the right side of tasteful. Only on very rare occasions do the stories disappoint significantly, for various reasons, most prominantly the departure of style or mood from the classic which first birthed the world. Introductions to the worlds and other background info at the start of every story by their respective authors, in themselves worth the price of admission, is a great initiative giving the reader an insight into the workings of the creative mind and other interesting behind-the-scene tidbits. All in all an impressive effort, definitely worth a look.

If (for example) you would like to know how Ender first became acquainted with the self-aware computer personality known as Jane (from the Ender Series, by Orson Scott Card) or any of a dozen other "missing pieces" in other great series, you will want this book.

I was so excited to find another story in Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. It was great. While it does not directly tie in characters from the earlier books, it was nice to be in Hyperion universe once again. The rest of the book is a treasure of original stories by some of my favorite authors in their best series like Card and Brin. I may even pick up a few of the authors that I have yet to read that are featured in this book.

If you want to be in on what's new in science fiction check this book out. I've also read a couple of intriguing new books-- AREA 51 and ATLANTIS which were intriguing.